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Investing

They scroll along the bottom of the screen on the business channels...those 3 and 4 letter combos followed by a dollar amount. Those letters are shorthand for a particular company. They're called ticker symbols because in the late 1800's and early 1900's, stock prices were transmitted over telegraph lines and printed on a machine called a stock ticker...ticker because of the sound it made. The ticker symbols were kind of like old school texting abbreviations.

Imagine yourself at the Fourth of July barbecue this weekend, hanging out with family and friends, and for some inexplicable reason the conversation turns to money. Somebody brags they’re making 1% in their online savings account…and not taking any risk in the volatile market doing it.

But you quickly say “You know how long it will take to double your money at that rate? 72-years”. And they’re all stunned by your mental math skills…not to mention the 72-years part.

O'Grady here. I always figured I was Irish. When I was a kid, teachers, coaches, and authority figures would often joke about my "nice Jewish name". It wasn't until both of my parents passed away within 2-years of each other that I got interested in my ethnic heritage. Was I really Irish or a St. Patrick's wannabe.